Che

Rated NR257 minutes2009

Benicio Del Toros arguably soulful performance as Ernesto Che Guevara, the worlds most emblematic revolutionary, gets lost in the shuffle in Part One of filmmaker Steven Soderberghs lengthy two-part action character study, which skips forward, in Part Two, to Ches futile, frustrating, fatal attempt to do the same thing for Bolivia that he did for Cuba in 1957. The Cuban half tries for fly-on-the-wall docudrama alongside Che, Fidel Castro (Demián Bichir), and their comrades as they battle through the Cuban mountains and jungles toward victory. That triumph seems deflated in bone-weary Part Two. As Che puts it: The revolution was not popular. Director Soderbergh and writer Peter Buchmans strategy, integrity-filled as it may be (they adapted Ches diaries), has the effect of dampening Ches skyrocket. The revolution seems bigger than the man himself. He somehow seems to deserve better. Also with Santiago Cabrera, Julia Ormond, Franka Potente, Edgar Ramirez, and Unax Ugalde (Part One, 129 min.; Part Two, 128 min).
ByKelly Vance